Soeren Kern : A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in France: February 2017

A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in France: February 2017

Children and women are being
raped by human traffickers inside the Camp de la Linière, a migrant camp
in the northern French city of Dunkirk; they are forced to have sex in
return for blankets, food or the offer of passage to Britain. A
volunteer worker referred to the children as being like "little steaks"
because they were considered so appetizing and vulnerable to
traffickers.

The breakdown in law and order in Muslim neighborhoods in Paris
is being fueled by impunity for criminals and a lenient judicial system,
according to Hugues Moutouh, a former advisor to the Interior Ministry.

"You can pass on my respects to the Grand Mufti, but I will not
cover myself up." — French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen,
cancelling a meeting with the Grand Mufti of Lebanon.

The report implies that deradicalization, either in specialized
centers or in prisons, does not work because most Islamic radicals do
not want to be deradicalized.

February 1. The Interior Ministry reported
a 45% decline in attacks against Jews and Muslims in France in 2016,
but a 17.5% increase in attacks against Christians. The ministry said
there were 1,125 attacks against Jews and Muslims in 2016, down from
2,034 attacks in 2015. It also reported 949 attacks against Christians
in 2016, up from 808 attacks in 2015. Attacks against Christians jumped
by 245% between 2008 and 2016.
February 2. Undercover police wearing burqas and qamis (traditional Arab gowns) were filmed
apprehending a drug dealer in the Marseille's Bricarde district, a
notorious no-go zone. Police confirmed the "totally normal camouflage
technique" after the cellphone video was posted on social media. A local
resident complained: "This gives the impression that you basically have to be Muslim or look like a Muslim in order to blend in." Another resident said:

"I think that trying to blend into the crowd in order not
to attract attention is a good way of catching traffickers. What's
more, the police are not really respected on the council estates, which
have become no-go areas. Even the police are scared to go there, which
isn't right. So it's hardly surprising that when they come they have to
disguise themselves — although I can understand why lots of people are
criticizing them for it."

February 3. Abdallah El-Hamahmy, a 29-year-old Egyptian national, attacked
four French soldiers at the Louvre in Paris. He was carrying two
backpacks when he approached the soldiers, who were on patrol at the
entrance to the Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall, beneath the museum.
When they told him that he could not bring his bags into the mall, he
lunged at them with a machete and began shouting "Allahu Akbar." After a
brief struggle, one of the soldiers opened fire, leaving El-Hamahmy in
critical condition. El-Hamahmy had arrived in Paris legally on January
26 after obtaining a one-month tourist visa in Dubai. Prime Minister
Bernard Cazeneuve called the attack "terrorist in nature."
February 5. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the anti-establishment National Front party, officially launched
her campaign to become the next president of France. Speaking at a
rally attended by thousands of her supporters in Lyon, Le Pen launched a
two-pronged attack on globalization and radical Islam. She promised
French voters a referendum on remaining in the European Union, and also
to deport Muslims who are deemed a security risk to France.
February 5. A police officer was charged
with raping a 22-year-old man named Théo during an identity check in
the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois. The man was allegedly beaten and
then raped with a police baton. He was subsequently hospitalized for
injuries to his rectum that required surgery. The arrest sparked riots
in Paris and other cities across France. The Inspector General of the
National Police (IGPN) later determined
that the sodomy was an accident which occurred after Théo refused to
allow himself to be handcuffed. "It is undoubtedly very serious, it is
violence that has resulted in permanent disability, but it is not a
rape," the IGPN said. The police finding sparked another wave of riots.
February 7. A majority (61%) of French respondents agreed with the
statement, "All further migration from mainly Muslim countries should be
stopped," according to a Chatham House survey of European attitudes toward Muslim immigration.
February 8. A new study
by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE)
offered a partial view of the ethnic composition of French society.
Journalist Yves Mamou wrote:

"In 2015, 7.3 million people born in France had at least
one immigrant parent (11% of the population). Of these 7.3 million
people, 45% are of European origin, most of whom are children of
immigrants who arrived in France from Spain (8%) or Italy (12%) as early
as the 1930s, or from Portugal in the 1970s onwards. One can assume,
although it is not written in the study, that these people are of
Christian origin.
"Another group is composed of Africans. 42% of the 7.3 million
children born in France to an immigrant parent are of African
background, mainly North Africa. They came from Algeria (15%), Morocco
(11%), Tunisia (5%) and sub-Saharan Africa (11%). Although it is also
not specified in the study, it would seem that the great majority are
Muslim.
"Another group, children from Turkish migrant families, represent 4%
of the 7.3 million. These people are classified as Asian; they are not
included in the African and Muslim group. Most of these Turks are also
presumably Muslim.
"A conclusion therefore would assume that 46% of the descendants of
immigrants are Muslim and 45% are Christian. The remaining 9% are from
East Asia or the Americas."

February 8. Two jihadists who were under house arrest in Bayonne evaded
French authorities and left for Syria to join the Islamic State. The
duo was intercepted in Slovenia. "This does not mean that Bayonne is a
fertile ground for radicalization," said Éric Morvan, the prefect of
Pyrénées-Atlantiques. "We are very far away, even if some individuals
are closely monitored."
February 9. The Paris mayor's office announced
a plan to build a 2.5 meter-high (8ft) wall of reinforced glass around
the Eiffel Tower to protect against jihadist attacks. If approved, the
€20 million ($21 million) project will begin later this year.
February 10. The Constitutional Council, the highest court in France, ruled
that a law adopted in June 2016, which makes it a crime to consult
jihadist websites, is unconstitutional. The ten-member council ruled
that the law, which sets a two-year prison sentence and €30,000
($32,000) fine for anyone "habitually" consulting jihadist websites,
infringed on the fundamental freedom of communication. The case was
brought before the court by Sami Khankan, a lawyer whose client, a
convert to Islam named David Pagerie, was found guilty of the offense
and was sentenced for two years by a court in Anger.
February 10. Cédric Herrou, a French farmer who helped migrants evade police to cross the French-Italian border, was handed
a €3,000 suspended sentence. A court in Nice found him guilty of
meeting migrants, most of them Eritrean, on Italian soil to bring them
to France. The court found him not guilty of other charges, in
particular housing illegal immigrants and placing them in a disused
holiday home belonging to the SNCF rail company. France's immigration
law punishes people who facilitate the illegal entry, movement or
residence of a foreigner in France. The law allows for sentences of up
to five years in prison and a fine of €30,000. After the verdict, Herrou
vowed to carry on helping migrants.
February 10. The Pentagon confirmed
that it targeted an Islamic State jihadist, Rachid Kassim, a French
national, in a strike by the U.S.-led coalition near Mosul, Iraq.
Kassim, who was in his 30s and originally from Roanne in the Loire
Valley, is believed to have inspired the June 2016 attack on a senior French police officer and his partner, and the July 2016 murder of an elderly priest, whose throat was cut.
February 11. Children and women are being raped by human traffickers
inside the Camp de la Linière, a migrant camp in the northern French
city of Dunkirk, according to the London-based Observer.
Corroborating accounts from volunteers, medics, refugees and other
officials revealed that sexual abuse is common within the camp, and that
children and women are forced to have sex in return for blankets, food
or the offer of passage to Britain. Accounts from those at the camp,
which currently holds up to 2,000 refugees, of whom an estimated 100 are
unaccompanied minors, portray a squalid site with inadequate security
and atrocious living conditions.
A volunteer coordinator, testifying on the condition of anonymity, said:

"Sexual assault, violence and rape are all far too
common. Minors are assaulted and women are raped and forced to pay for
smuggling with their bodies.
"Although the showers are meant to be locked at night, particularly
dangerous individuals in the camp have keys and are able to take the
women to the showers in the night to force themselves on them. This has
happened to women I know very well."

She said that one of the most in-demand products distributed to women
in the Dunkirk Camp are adult diapers: "Women are too scared to go to
the toilets in the night," she said. "None of the locks in the women's
toilets in the camp work."
The volunteer also recounted several incidents where minors had been attacked:

"A 12-year-old girl was groomed in the camp by a man well
over twice her age. When she no longer wanted to speak with him because
his behavior towards her had become so obscene, he threatened her. A
13-year-old boy ended up returning to his home country having been raped
in the camp."

Another statement provided by an ex-NGO worker, who spent more than
three years volunteering at Dunkirk, said men targeted women and
children because they were so vulnerable. "You see women in a male
environment with men that are disconnected from reality, so there are
serious incidents such as rape. Women, children, young teens, male and
female." The worker referred to the children as being like "little
steaks" because they were considered so appetizing and vulnerable to
traffickers, of whom dozens reside on site.
One woman travelling by herself said that unaccompanied individuals
were viewed as prey: "All men see that I'm alone, and it's the same for
the children. Men see me and they want to rape me."
February 13. The South Korean embassy advised
Korean tourists to avoid parts of Paris after a tour group was robbed
in a tour bus stuck in traffic in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis).
February 13. The breakdown in law and order in Muslim neighborhoods
in Paris is being fueled by impunity for criminals and a lenient
judicial system, according to Hugues Moutouh, a former advisor to the
Interior Ministry. In an essay for Le Figaro, he wrote:

"Another night of riots in the Paris suburbs. Again and
again the same scenes of urban violence, the same images of cars burned,
attacks of police stations, Molotov cocktails launched on the forces of
law and order....
"A part of the French political class, on the left, is even an
accomplice to these abuses by justifying the revolt of those whom it
still persists in calling 'young people'...
"The suburbs of our big cities are being gangrened by gangs of
traffickers.... They no longer fear the police and increasingly do not
hesitate to attack them violently. Public utilities, schools and police
stations are routinely ransacked. Our forces of order are exhausted and
disgusted... Politicians, by their attitudes, may also give the
impression of endorsing or even encouraging public disorder."

February 13. A hundred Eritrean and Sudanese migrants rioted
at a rest area in Steenvoorde, on the highway linking Lille to Dunkirk,
in northern France. Police said the fight was over "control of the
territory" for trucks on their way to Britain. "When the police arrived,
the migrants scattered in the woods and there were no arrests," police
said.
February 13. The Paris City Hall installed
large boulders to dissuade migrants from setting up makeshift camps
outside an official migrant shelter at Porte de La Chapelle. Migrants
often sleep outdoors while waiting for one of the 400 spaces in the
shelter to become available. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the city
wants to carry out "a reflection on the appropriation of public spaces
to avoid the installation of new migrant camps in Paris."
February 14. Two men and a 16-year-old girl were charged
in southern France on suspicion of planning a terror attack that the
authorities said was imminent. The three, arrested on February 10 near
the coastal city of Montpellier, were identified as Muslim convert
Thomas Sauret, 20; his partner, a 16-year-old named only as Sarah; and
Malik Hammami, 33. They were indicted for "criminal association in
connection with a criminal terrorist enterprise."
February 18. The LigneRock Festival, an annual music festival in Saint-Christophe-du-Ligneron, Vendée, was cancelled after concert organizers received three anonymous phone calls warning of a "bloodbath" if the event went ahead as planned.
February 18. Police reported
escalating tensions between Afghans and Sudanese at a new migrant
reception center in northern Paris. "It was tense for a week," a police
source told Le Monde. "The Sudanese and Afghans are not friends."
The facility also reported a surge in migrants from Germany and Sweden.
"Seventy percent of arrivals may not satisfy the criteria for asylum in
France," the source said.
February 19. A 32-year-old man shouting "Allahu Akhbar" and "we are going to kill all of you" was shot
by police after stabbing a female passerby and then attacking an
elderly couple in Montauban, near Toulouse. The public prosecutor's
office ordered the man to be hospitalized for treatment of "psychiatric disorders."
February 21. Prosecutors in Paris launched
an investigation after two French Jews, aged 29 and 17, reportedly were
assaulted by a group of men described as having a Middle Eastern
appearance. The incident allegedly occurred at a traffic light in the
Paris suburb of Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis). The attackers pulled the
victims, who were wearing skullcaps, out of their vehicle and attempted
to sever their fingers with a hacksaw. The attackers hurled anti-Semitic
slogans at the victims, including "Dirty Jews, you're going to die."
Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux expressed "outrage" and pledged to do
everything he could to find the perpetrators.
February 21. Three men were arrested
in separate counter-terrorism raids in Paris, Marseille and
Clermont-Ferrand. "The suspects had a plot that was sufficiently
advanced for the police to decide to arrest them," according to
anti-terrorism prosecutors in Paris.
February 21. The Paris region lost
an estimated €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) in tourist income in 2016 due
to a steep decline in tourism since the 2015-2016 terror attacks on
France. The number of tourists visiting Île-de-France, a region which
includes Paris and the surrounding area, fell by 1.5 million in 2016.
The steepest decline was in Chinese and Japanese visitors.
February 21. French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen cancelled
a meeting with Lebanon's Grand Mufti after he insisted that she wear a
headscarf. "The highest authority in the Sunni world did not have this
requirement, therefore, there is no reason to wear the veil," Le Pen
said in reference to her meeting with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar mosque
in Cairo, Egypt, in May 2015. "You can pass on my respects to the Grand
Mufti, but I will not cover myself up."

On
Feb. 21, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen cancelled a
meeting with Lebanon's Grand Mufti after he insisted that she wear a
headscarf. "You can pass on my respects to the Grand Mufti, but I will
not cover myself up," she said. (Image source: France24 video
screenshot)

February 22. The government's flagship program to deradicalize
jihadists is a "total failure" and must be "completely
reconceptualized," according
to the initial conclusions of a parliamentary fact-finding commission
on deradicalization. The report reveals that the government has nothing
to show for the tens of millions of taxpayer euros it has spent over the
past several years to combat Islamic radicalization in France, where
238 people have been killed in jihadist attacks since January 2015. The
report implies that deradicalization, either in specialized centers or
in prisons, does not work because most Islamic radicals do not want to
be deradicalized.
February 22. A court in Paris sentenced two French jihadists, Ibrayima Sylla, 37, and Pierre Roubertie, 26, to a combined 38 years in prison for invading
the home of Jacques Penhouet, a post office teller in Seine-et-Marne,
and taking his pregnant wife and son hostage, in August 2013. While
Roubertie, a convert to Islam, guarded the mother and son, Sylla dragged
Penhouet to his workplace to empty the post office safe. The attackers
made off with a meagre €2,080 ($2,100). Prosecutors said the two men had
planned to use the stolen money to fund jihadist attacks on French
soil.
February 28. Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, during a visit to Jakarta, Indonesia, insisted that there is no connection between Islam, radicalism and terrorism. "Terrorism has no nationality or religion," he said.

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